times the volume of the whites you start with. Add a pinch of salt and start beating on a medium speed, gradually increasing to high as the whites start to foam. The beating time will vary depending on how many whites you are using so keep a close eye on them. The whites are ready when they reach ‘stiff peaks’ stage – they should be smooth, moist, shiny and the tips will stand up straight as you lift the beaters out of the bowl. NOTE: Add a pinch of cream of tartar or a drop of lemon juice to the mix to help increase volume and stability. FOLDING WHITES INTO A BATTER When the whites are beaten to stiff peaks, you need to fold them carefully into your batter right away – as soon as you stop beating they will start to lose air. A metal spoon or rubber spatula is best for doing this. Start by making a well in the centre of your batter or dry ingredients. If it’s a wet batter, stir a small spoonful of whites in, just to introduce it to the mix. Now spoon the whites into the centre – use your spatula to cut through the middle, scoop up towards the edge of the bowl and ‘fold’ back over the top of the whites. Turn the bowl slightly and repeat until all the foam is incorporated. It may look like it’s never going to happen, but it will. Just keep folding. Your aim here is to preserve as much of the trapped air as possible while incorporating the foam evenly. Try to handle gently and be patient.
NOTE: Yolks or whole eggs can also be beaten to trap air, but it’s only a fraction of what the whites alone will do. When making cakes with whipped egg whites I like to whip up the yolks as well, separately, for extra volume.
CAKE RITUALS
Ever since I started learning about baking I have been obsessed with the history of cake. Its image is so wholesome, unassuming and sweet, yet all around the world its history has mythological, religious, even macabre associations and fantastic stories. It has been assigned magical properties, great symbolism and powers of divination. Cakes have long been tied to ceremonial occasions – we still eat them on significant dates like weddings, birthdays, funerals – but the further back you look through history, the more prominent their role in ritual. Cakes were offered to gods or consumed as part of ceremonies intended to appease them, to encourage good harvests or to ensure the continued rotation of the sun. Here is a collection of just a few cake-related mythologies from around the world.
SOUL CAKES were historically eaten on All Souls’ Day. For pagan people, All Souls’ Day was the day the dead arose and walked the earth, and they believed they needed to be fed in order to persuade them not to harm the living. The Japanese and Mexicans also make cakes for their dead. People in Germany and Austria would often leave cakes at graves, and the Ancient Egyptians placed them inside tombs.
CHINESE MOON CAKES are still eaten to this day at the Chinese festival for lunar worship. Their symbolism is linked to the mythical Moon Goddess – the Goddess of Immortality, who lives on the moon with a lunar rabbit who makes rice. There is a folk tale that recounts how the overthrow of Mongol rule was once facilitated by messages smuggled in moon cakes, and puzzles printed on their surfaces revealing secret codes that were destroyed when the cakes were eaten.
THE ANCIENT CELTS rolled cakes down the side of a hill to imitate the sun’s rotation and thus ensure it would continue. They also used cakes as a means of divination, even in so far as selecting victims for sacrifice. In a ritual not unlike our tradition of placing a shilling in a Christmas pudding, the Celts would blacken a piece of cake with charcoal; then, when the cake was divided and served, the receiver of the blackened piece would be sacrificed as an offering to the gods. In fact, the Lindow Man – the tar-preserved body of a man killed 2,200 years ago, which currently resides at the British Museum – is thought to have been a victim of just such a ritual. Remnants of his last meal – a partly digested and badly scorched cake – were found in his small intestine.
THE ANCIENT GREEKS left cakes at crossroads to appease Hecate, the testy Goddess of the Underworld. They would leave offerings of ‘Hecate cakes’ for her, sometimes marked by a single candle so that she could find her way in the dark. This practice is thought by some to be the origin of the tradition of putting birthday candles on cakes. Many cultures made cake offerings to deities, and also offered cakes to the spirits of the dead, believing the cakes would nourish them in the journey to the afterworld.
HINDU TURTLE CAKES are paste cakes of flour shaped like turtles and are made for festivals held in honour of a deity in Taiwanese villages. People buy the cakes at the temple and take them home to assure prosperity, harmony and security.
ULTIMATE PILLOW-SOFT VANILLA SPONGE CAKE
There are lots of variations on the basic vanilla sponge recipe and technique, and this is my favourite. Many hours have been clocked up in the bakery perfecting this recipe, and I can guarantee that this is one of the lightest, most buttery, melt-in-the-mouth vanilla sponge cakes you will find. It’s one of the simplest cakes I make, but it’s also one of the most popular and I’m constantly asked for the recipe. It is gravity-defyingly light but has a very buttery, almost chewy top. If you perfect one recipe from this book and use it again and again, I would recommend this – simple but delicious, versatile and impressive.
In this recipe all the flour is coated in butter in the initial stage, which inhibits the development of gluten and produces a very soft crumb. There are far fewer air pockets formed by creaming, but this is compensated for with a larger dose of baking powder. As very little gluten is formed to build structure, this is quite a delicate cake, so mind the baking time carefully and be sure to check your oven temperature. Make sure you whisk the dry ingredients together first, as this is a crucial stage for an even result.
PREP TIME 20 minutes COOKING TIME 30 minutes SERVES: 8–10 330g plain flour, sifted 320g caster sugar 1½ tbsp baking powder Pinch of salt 175g unsalted butter, room temperature 3 eggs 190ml whole milk 1½ tsp good vanilla extract Two 23cm cake tins, greased andlined, or 24 cupcake cases in trays
1 Preheat the oven to 180˚C fan assisted/gas mark 6.
2 In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Beat in the butter until it is incorporated and the mixture appears to be evenly coated and looks like a fine crumble mix – 2–3 minutes on medium speed.
3 Add the eggs and beat, first on medium, then on high, just until incorporated.
4 Add the milk and vanilla and beat, on medium and then on high, until the mixture is smooth and combined; it will appear a bit lighter in colour – 2–3 minutes.
5 Divide the mixture between the two prepared cake tins and level out to the edges. Bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
TIP: Always scrape down the sides of the bowl in between adding ingredients.
SEVEN WAYS WITH VANILLA SPONGE
Once
